Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to polymer blends. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to polymer blends comprising a composition of polyisoprene and polychloroprene materials for unsupported barrier products and flexible coatings for supported protective articles.
Description of the Related Art
Gloves, and other protective articles, are used in many industries, such as construction, industrial, and medical, as well as households, to protect the hands of users. For medical applications, such as examination and surgical gloves, gloves promote protection against germs, viruses, and microbes. Particularly for surgical gloves, it is important that the gloves have high resistance to tears while remaining flexible so that intricate procedures, in which scalpels, forceps, hemostats, and the like are used, can be performed. However, current gloves, which are made of polyisoprene, are relatively weak and are susceptible to breach during use and particularly extended use, increasing the risk of infection from doctor to patient and vice versa. Moreover, natural polyisoprene contains a high amount of proteins, which cause allergic reactions in many people while synthetic polyisoprene, which is less allergenic, is expensive to produce.
To address these problems, gloves have been produced using various synthetic thermoplastic elastomers, such as polyurethanes and styrene block copolymers. Such gloves can suffer from inherent stiffness. Also, other attempts to improve the physical properties of natural and synthetic polyisoprene for gloves have largely failed. For example, various additives, such as diphenyl guanidine, have been used in rubber compositions to improve flexibility, which decreases, for e.g., abrasion- and tear-resistance. Some attempts have included different combinations of accelerators, although none have provided an adequate balance of physical properties, i.e., flexibility, tensile strength, abrasion-resistance, tear-resistance, moisture absorption, and/or the like.
Therefore, polymeric, elastomeric, or latex compositions and/or blends thereof, used to make surgical or examination gloves or coatings for fabric liners or condoms, having acceptable tensile strength and other physical properties while remaining soft and flexible, would represent an advance in the art.